Touda
Touda is the Childhood friend of Fire Lord Zuko and Royal Fire bending teacher. He currently resides in the Palace at the Fire Nation Capital. History Touda was born late in the 7th month of the year 83 ASC (After Sozin's Comet), to an ancient Noble lineage- the Lung Hua family. His birth was hailed as quite timely for the new parents Shaozi and Kuan Yin, as he was only a few weeks older than the newest addition to the royal family, Prince Zuko. A better situation couldn't have been asked for, as it turned out- their mothers getting together meant that they knew each other long before Princess Azula was born, and their closeness in age allowed for Touda's father to hone their Firebending skills together. Touda's life in the palace meant that he grew up alongside most every noble child his age- Zuko, Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were all in his realm of sociability. His early life in the lap of Palatial luxury only fueled young Toud's troublemaking and roguish tendencies. Where Zuko was a bit of a grumpy child, Touda was bright, carefree, and more than a handful. More often than not, Touda got the two of them into more trouble than they should have gotten into. He frequently disrupted study time by arguing with Zuko, taunted Mai, stole lesson plans, played pranks, and starting from about age seven, flirted with pretty girls. Whether his friend enjoyed it or not, Zuko was often along for the ride. At ten, his world was rocked when a series of devastating events took place in the palace- then Fire Lord Azulon died in the middle of the night, and the next morning, Ursa was nowhere to be found. The coldness of the marble floor beneath Touda's knees as he knelt in white mourning clothes at the funeral ceremony only drove home the sudden gut churning in his stomach as Zuko's distant father Ozai was crowned Fire Lord. Things would have to change, whether Touda wanted them to, or not, and for some time, Zuko's mood was a little more sober than his usual. Ozai had never particularly cared for Touda to begin with (he never much cared for his own son, much less any boy the same age) and now that he ruled the nation, things became more personal for any misbehavior. It was through these years that Touda's mother taught him how to cook, and when not avoiding studying, he snuck out of the palace with Zuko. Though neither were top of their class at every subject, both boys graduated from the Royal Academy, and it seemed like Zuko was being prepared to become the heir to the throne. At age thirteen, however, Zuko spoke out in what Touda learned later was a War Room meeting. His friend's Agni Kai punishment for doing was a failure that still haunts Touda to this day. As soon as his body was pulled away from the arena, Touda rushed to the rooms of his friend, trying to gather the news of what was happening next. It took a few days for things to fall into place- Zuko was being banished, with General Iroh as his guardian. His only route towards returning to his homeland, and restoring his honor would be to bring the long-missing Avatar back with him. Touda saw Zuko off as he headed towards the first most obvious place to search for the last Airbender- the Western Air Temple. With his best friend gone, and his standing in the Palace tentatively safe at best, Touda's next move in life was his enrollment in the Fire Nation Naval Forces. It is uncertain (and even unspoken) however, if this move was made due to his own adolescent recklessness, his parents' pushing for what seemed like a safer option, or a 'suggestion' made by higher ups to keep him out of the way. Touda spent much of his time in training with other enlisted navy men, and it was at about this time his vocabulary (and womanizing skills) truly started to develop. (Ladies, after all, loved a man in uniform.) Touda still got himself into trouble however, and due to more than one bad encounter with then Commander Zhao, got regulated to a basic shipments fleet that avoided most "honorable" combat, and instead guarded the coasts of abroad Fire Nation colonies and encampments. By the age of 17, the war had finally ended and Touda returned home, now able to welcome his best friend back as the rightful Fire Lord to the nation. He withdrew from the Navy, and moved to complete his teaching training at the Fire Nation's University while beginning to tutor students. That same year of his return, he met Karasa "Cyan", the plucky new Water tribe transplant coming to be added to the mix of the Capital. The two quickly became friends (her knowledge of Zuko as "Li" only spurred things on) and he now relies on her to heal up any casualties his class inflicts. Once Touda's mastery of his element was established according to standard, he took his father's place as a full time Sifu in the palace, where he finds himself quite happy to be working. Personality Touda is everything one should think a playboy should be- a little too cocky, a little too handsome, a little too arrogant, a little too flirtatious, and a whole lot too suave. But while he's all those things, he still manages somehow to come off as less badass than he hopes to be- probably because as most figure, he's got a legendary reputation in the bedroom, but a sweet inside to balance it out. He's disarmingly honest and surprisingly perceptive; although both skills can come with a side of blunt rudeness. He's by and large a bit of a comedian- and it would make sense, as most people are pretty sure Zuko would never put up with him if he wasn't mildly amusing. His trouble-making tendencies have taken different fronts as he's gotten older- now instead of forgoing studying for his next science test, Touda avoids pushing paperwork like the plague. His party throwing abilities are now his new brand of havoc-wreaking, and Touda threw Zuko's bachelor party with a success rate of a rather large hangover for everyone involved. While he's never been known to hire working women off the streets of Harbor City (it would involved the passage of money before sex, which Touda views as personally vulgar), Touda has befriended most of the Fire Nation Palace's harem, which certainly speaks to his bedroom antics. After all, the best sex education is available right inside the palace, and growing up if he needed to defer for advice, the ladies of the Harem were a good choice. All in all, Touda enjoys releasing the endless bounds of energy his does have in one of a few ways- sex being one of his personal favorites. And when not tumbling around with someone, he finds ways to make sure other people are happy too. Whether or not these attempts at helping friends works is completely hit or miss, and some might point out that his "hits" are just lucky guess work. But of course, as time passes, he can focusing on molding his own protégés and corrupting the next generation of young adults with a smile, and a push towards doing what makes people happy. Either way, while he's got a reputation for running through women like water, he genuinely respects most of them. And he's had a very attempts at real relationships, although they've tended to not work out for him in the past. Exes include a mis-guided girl who expected marriage, a controlling noble whose curves and venomously pouty lips made his life hell, and a withdrawn girlfriend who fled to the Earth Kingdom and died of the plague. Needless to say, Touda's inner romantic hopes that he'll find someone that he'll never leave his bedroom with, but most of him just wonders if some of Zuko's rotten luck has worn off on his love life. It doesn't help that his efforts to make his friends happy sometimes sparks Touda's bad traits, though. Katara and Zuko may be disgustingly working it out in between bouts of consistent arguing, but Touda's easily made jealous by the sudden new closeness of the new girl. To be sure, he likes Katara well enough, but it took Zuko and Mai's break up for him to finally get along (and even once use as a wedding date) with Mai. Simply put, Touda can be a little petty, nosey, and downright jerkishly spoiled. This may be the reason why, after his other best friend, Cyan set her sights on another palace Sifu, Jai, Touda has not reacted well. After all, he knew her first as well, and in the seven years they've known each other, he had never before kissed her. Of course that changed after a teasing (and all too on point) accusation that Cyan wasn't really uninterested in him because he was a bad boy, but because she was afraid of her own urges. Adding in Zuko's pretty and prim distant cousin's interest in Jai, and Touda's attitude has gotten everyone into trouble again. Friends, Coworkers, and Acquaintances Zuko This duo is full of guy love- patches n' limpy, happy and grumpy. (All depending on whether or not they've sparred together recently, or gotten into one of their classic man bitch fights. ) They're not always on the same level- Zuko is too serious sometimes for Touda, and Touda too much of a court jester for Zuko, but the two of them have always managed to put up with each other, and this is probably what makes their relationship work. After all, they're both a little insufferable, and together, they've got someone always by their side- through women, disaster, women again, and any other current trouble the two of them have worked themselves into. They've spent most of their life together- save for the few birthdays spent separate during Zuko's banishment, they've come a long way side by side. Of course they've had just about every up and down two guy friends could ever possibly have. From cookie snatching to being chastised in the art rooms during primary schooling, Sifu Touda and the Fire Lord had only ever parted ways when the war eventually caught up with them, sending Mr. Muttonchops to the front lines and the then-prince on an impossible mission to capture the Avatar. It was only when that part of their lives had ended did they finally grow into their proper roles set side by side that same old traditional way of all things Fire Nation. Zuko would take the crown, and Touda would take the tutoring position of the crown. And the rest is history. Karasa "Cyan" Touda's friendship with Cyan is what most like to call a happy accident. As he was walking the docks in Harbor City (still in full naval uniform), Touda accidentally bumped into a smaller, very un-Fire Nation teen of about sixteen. After a good telling off, and his embarrassed apology, they got to talking. It turned out that they had one very big thing in common- Zuko. Cyan's new transplant to the Fire Nation as a member of the nobility (by her mother's new marriage) allowed for Touda to see quite a bit of his new partner in crime. Touda took to showing her around the city straight away, as Zuko was technically busy with patching together his new reign (and stead-fastly being awkward about his inability to admit his previous lies about his identity.) Their first night of touring was spent at a street festival where Touda took Cyan back to the docks of Harbor city, and made her see the fireflies at night over a few bags of Fire Flakes. Over the last seven years, they've become the best of friends, although recently, they've run into the big cowelephant in the room- why Touda never pursued her before; or if he did (the two remain mum on the subject) why she originally shot him down. Either way, if Touda by himself causes trouble, Touda and Cyan together can cause mishaps that leave Zuko with a headache for weeks afterwards. Case in point, Cyan has been the only woman to ever out drink Touda - and the two of them spent the day collapsed on Zuko's living room floor afterwards. Touda tends to forget Cyan doesn't know combative waterbending in the sense that Katara does, mostly because she often whaps him and Zuko over the head with an icy cold stream of water. In a strange sense, Touda genuinely considers Cyan to be more Fire Nation than anything else (though her coloring is nothing but water tribe, and her attitude still more used to the Earth Kingdom.) Her sort-of high maintenance personality, and love of shopping compliments his own traits, and they've rarely had fights (the most notable one recently was an upset letter exchange over their courtyard indiscretion). And finally, Touda appreciates Cyan's loopies. He really wants to tear them off most of the time, but they're much more practical than Katara's kind, and don't hang about her face. He bought her her first pair of red beads upon entering the Fire Nation. Katara To be quite honest, Touda sort of only briefly heard of Katara in passing at the coronation of Zuko. It wasn't until six years down the line when he was dutifully traveling to the South Pole with Zuko to invite Katara to Zuko's wedding that he actually got introduced to the other waterbender. And even then, they really only got to talking when Touda was elected Prince of the Fire Nation Lights Festival on Ember Island- a job that required him to "kidnap" the elected Princess, who just so happened to be Katara. They managed to put up with each other for a few days; that is, when Zuko wasn't stealing her away for an illicit and no doubt drunken tryst. When Katara left Ember Island, Touda was the one to see her off (with a goodbye and good luck kiss thrown in) and he sort of expected to maybe keep in touch, but never really see her around the Fire Nation again. Boy, was he wrong about that. First there was the horrible fact that she was pregnant that surfaced, and then the angry (and equally stupid) letters between his then-alive girlfriend and Katara. Of course, somewhere in the course of things, the girlfriend died, and Touda and Katara began to pass back and forth friendly letters that would start up a decent friendship between the two of them. Granted, they don't always understand each other- Touda is not a prude or conservative socially by any means, and Katara...well, she grew up in a much more orthodox place. So they don't always agree, or understand each other, and sometimes Touda wishes Katara wasn't so around all the time, but for the most part, they're friendly and probably friends. At least Touda can give a wise shrug and an "He's always been that way." after Katara commiserates with him over Zuko's latest temper tantrum. Mai Mai and Touda never used to be able to coexist in the same room with each other. Sure, they grew up together, same as the rest of the palace bunch, but while Touda was the joy to Zuko's sour, Mai was just an excessive gloom. Not only that, but she was Zuko's girlfriend for such a long time, and her being around meant Touda had to tone himself down so as not to disturb her. The two had clashing personalities around Zuko, and constantly went head to head for his attentions- best friend versus girlfriend. It was never pretty, and often ended with Touda being pinned to a wall for hours before anyone found him and removed the small throwing daggers keeping him there. On the brightside, after Zuko and Mai's breakup, and her running off to be a Pirate, the two ran into each other again at Kyoshi Island and managed to flesh out a truce. They're not kids anymore, and taking the competition out of it not only made things easier for them, but made Mai happier. And when Mai's happy, they get along surprisingly well; well enough that for Sokka and Suki's wedding, they went together as dates. Ty Lee Touda and Ty Lee grew up together, and got along quite well- after all, he was the sort to respect that she wasn't any of her other sisters. Ty Lee was different. And considering their mutually happy outlooks on life, they got along splendidly, especially when it came to teasing Zuko and Mai about their puppy-love. As they grew older, they developed what could only be called an interesting relationship- friends that sometimes swung over for a little bit more. Ty Lee has also helped Touda out with relationship advice, although there have been long stretches of time when she wasn't around- first her time in the circus, and then her time as a Kyoshi warrior. After a brief stint in the Fire Nation again, she asked for Touda's help to start her search for Azula. Touda helped her briefly, before saying goodbye. He hopes she's doing okay, as she's on her hunt. Jai Probably under other circumstances, Jai and Toud would be fast friends. And that's not even to say they still couldn't be, because even though Jai has entirely different outlook on women and sex, well, Touda has a habit of making friends who clash a bit with him anyways. It's just rather unfortunate that he likes Cyan, and Cyan likes him, and Touda has discovered he doesn't like that. In fact, Jai's small differences from him are sort of the root of Touda's issue. What was supposed to be a joking comment about how Jai was on Cyan's radar because he was a good guy quickly devolved into a question of whether or not Touda's badness could still be good enough for Cyan. It's all a shame, really, because Touda and Jai are currently tag-team teaching to cover for the missing history and literature teacher, Mahn Jee in the palace. While literature as an academic subject isn't Touda's strong point, or Jai's, they've gotten to work happily mixing up both science and history. Family (Lineage) Direct Relations Mother ''- Lady Kuan Yin ''Father ''- Lord Shaozi ''Sibling ''- Lady Qi Ming '''Paternal Blood Lines' House - 'Lung Hua ''Grandfather ''- Guozhi ''Grandmother ''- Lanfen ''Uncles- Yao Zen, Jian, Kazan; By Marriage: Qao, Long Yu, Li Aunts- Song Ye, Xiulan, Mei Mei; By Marriage: Nia, Lana, Sariya Cousins- Qi Male, Shang Male, Ia Female, Mizia Female, Hyo Male, Sozuya Female, Jozan Male, Jian Female, Kaito Male '''Maternal Bloodlines House - 'Yuun ''Grandfather ''- Kang Ze ''Grandmother ''- Eun Sun ''Uncles- None by direct relation; Haeyo, and Razoku by marriage Aunts- Azusa, Lian, Izrah Cousins - ''Sukh Male, Niran Male, Lya Female ''It is worth noting Touda's immediate family's size. Touda's remarkable libido was not some sort of freak occurrence- it's most likely genetic, what with his father being one of seven children. He has twelve Aunt and Uncles total on his Fathers side, and nine cousins (so far). On his mother's side he has only three aunts, and two uncles- adding up to three cousins (as one Aunt remains unmarried). Over all, that is 17 Aunts and Uncles, and 12 cousins. Suffice to say, this doesn't include Great Aunts & Uncles, Great Grandparents, second or third cousins, and family reunions are quite the affair. Touda's immediate family is actually quite small in comparison- the simple explanation being of course, while the Lung Hua side of the family breeds like rabbits, the Yuun side of the family is a little more reasonable about things. Kuan Yin put her foot down after two children with unruly and impossible hair. '' Students Touda expects a lot from his students. He's still likely to crack jokes, and slip in some subtle comments that slip under the notice of his younger (and more naive) students, but he demands attention, practice, and respect for the element he teaches. There's a good reason to do so, after all- a wrong move firebending could be disastrous. Common burns can be treated by salves, or Cyan, if she's hanging around the palace, but Touda prefers to avoid them altogether by drilling it into his students that while fire is a free element, it is also perhaps the one that is most alive- Fire doesn't care what someone's intentions for it was after it hits a surface, and can spread. He's not afraid to be stern because of this fact, and tries to make sure all his students stay in physical shape. As long as a student is willing to dedicate the whole class period to his instruction, they're going to do well under Touda- he's not mean, just intensive. His whole life has been a training to take on this job, and he ''loves it, although this fact may not always be the first thing people think of when they speak of him or his bending abilities. Due to constant physical exercise and practice, Touda's bending skill is at that of a top-notch master. (And he's slightly tan, to boot) He also feels a strange, sort of powerful, and almost zen-like state on the palace's sparring grounds. It is safe to say that Touda can hold his own in a fight or spar. '''Lan Lian Lan Lian is Touda's newest firebending Student- she's about 19, and a fairly good bender. He hasn't said much about the subject yet, but if she works hard at it, he figures she could probably become a master. (Provided, of course, that she reel in her temper.) Tom Tom Tom Tom is one of Touda's unabashedly favorite students. He's enthusiastic, and while not always up to practice, a hard worker in class. Hisoka Touda's oldest student, at age 27. Hisoka actually has a bit of an attraction to Touda, but Toud's a bit oblivious to the whole thing, as he's more worried about Hisoka's odd fusion style of bending- being taught fire by earthbenders, his style is a little too different. Hideaki Hide is another one of Touda's favorites (although he genuinely likes all of his students; he's just been around Hide and Tom Tom the most). He's a pretty decently skilled kid, and Touda enjoys training him. Women Karasa "Cyan" With their latest semi-dared kiss turned make out session, it's clear that there's something there. It's just that no one's sure what, or how it will play out, considering their long-standing friendship, and Cyan's potential boyfriend (and Touda's coworker) Jai. Katara Don't tell Zuko, but there was a moment. In all fairness, it was supposed to make up for the fact that Zuko probably wouldn't ever kiss her (again), but look how that turned out. All in all though, it's not a thing, and it's not even an issue. Katara is a nice gal, but a little too prudish, and very much with someone else. (Frankly, Touda's happier that way.) Xiao Xing This relationship was actually quite serious, although it probably played to Touda's underlying desire to be loved more than anything else, as the two of them had very deviating personalities. An engagement was in the works, but after Azula destroyed the palace, Xiao Xing chose to flee to Ba Sing Se, and subsequently died of the Scarlet Plague. longer Played That One Chick Whose Name Touda Forgets She expected him to get married to her after a week of dating! Better that her name stays forgotten. And although Touda doesn't know, she was kidnapped by the Jade Shark, only to be never seen (or role played) again. Longer Played Ty Lee Touda once jokingly told Zuko that he lost his virginity to Ty Lee. Zuko laughed, but then later wondered if he had been serious. Whether or not that's true doesn't matter much; they've been friends with benefits at different times. Si Yue An assassin Touda had a one night stand with when he was 18. Incidentally, they ran into each other again five years later, and became friendly. They've had some interludes now and again since. Longer Played Jeza She just isn't to be discussed. Touda's brief tryst with Jeza is the rather dark black mark on his run of girlfriends, and He Doesn't Like To Talk About Her. Mai Okay, admittedly, they didn't really do anything ever (except maybe share a few skilled dances), but they had quite a lovely date while at Sokka and Suki's wedding, which is probably as much as Touda and Mai will ever get to. That's okay though, one nice date still counts in Touda's book. Rhiddi An ex-girlfriend of Touda's a lot spoiled, and a lot beautiful, and pretty amazing when tangled up in sheets, but more than a bit of a nasty person. (She is related to Na.) She started a fight with Katara that lead Touda to finally break it off due to her inability to get along with anyone. need of a player Category:The Dawn Category:Fire Nation Category:Original Characters Category:Noblemen Category:Sifus Category:Fire Bender